Church of Armentine the Great/Gospel of the Pers/Orsa
Chapter 1 1:1 In the beginning there was the Void, a vast expanse of empty terrain. 1:2 Though the Void exists still, and shall exist until the end, it is now, and was then, filled with various objects. 1:3 Before the Endless Void was filled with the stars and galaxies and all that Which Is, it was filled with That Which Was Not Yet; unformed matter. 1:4 All of That Which Was Not Yet had unique traits to it, and, very rarely, two clouds of what Was Not Yet would meet, and form unto them That Which Was, and this was how I, the Almighty, was created. 1:5 And when I had taken form, I pulled That Which Was Not Yet to me, and made it so. 1:6 All that which you now see was created by I, who formed That Which Is from What Was Not, and am still forming new creations to this day. 1:7 After I had created the galaxies, and planets, and endowed only a spare few of them the ability to support life, and spaced them far and apart so that they would not meet each other until the end times, I focused my attentions on the one I called earth. 1:8 On earth I spent much time creating unique terrains and life, and saw that it was good, but the life was still primitive, and the terrains far too empty. 1:9 That was when, in all my knowingness, I created from a unique combination of That Which Was Not Yet unmatched in power by any combination but my own, a man, who was similar both to the beasts of the field and to my own image. 1:10 So I put man upon the earth as a blank slate, giving him potential to have knowledge and personality shaped by his own experiences as well as my teachings, and I gave him the name of Hywel. Chapter 2 2:1 So man progressed, becoming steadily more intelligent until he knew nearly as much as myself, and had fashioned out of the plants of the terrain himself a home, and sown from the hide of the animals clothing. 2:2 And man was brilliant and flawless, but still lonely, for he observed that all the animals had found mates, and had young, and that they were happy, and he was sad for he had none. 2:3 "O, Almighty," Hywel pleaded, "You hath given me life and all I hath ever asked for, and yet I have no wife unto me, and no kin to spreadith myself after my death." 2:4 I looked onto Hywel with pity, and called to me more of That Which Was Not Yet from the deep expanses of the Void outside the earth and used a combination similar to that which had created man to make him a woman, who would become his wife, and the woman I called Athilda. 2:5 And when I presented Hywel with Athilda, he was very pleased, and sang to me great songs illustrating his pleasure, and took his wife, and made her his own. 2:6 And yet I felt danger, for I saw that Hywel thought himself superior to his woman, for he was made before she, and I saw that, while Hywel could taketh periods of relaxing from his work, Athilda could not, except for in the hours of sleep. 2:7 And so I said unto Hywel, "I hath given ye a wife, and promised you may be fruitful, and multiply, and live together in harmony until the end of your days, but ye hath not honored me. You treateth your wife as though she was not your equal. Do you not know that I made her from That Which Was Not, just as I did you, and that you are one and the same?" 2:8 I swore unto Hywel that he had best treat his wife, and all his daughters and other women equally, for they were the same as he, and he promised he would, and obeyed, and it was good 2:9 And soon Hywel lay with his wife Athilda, and she became with child, and bore him a son, who they named Beli. 2:10 And as Beli grew they taught him the ways of life, and Hywel and Athilda lay with each other again, and begat sons and a daughter. 2:11 And the first sibling of Beli, by name Asha, was dark-haired and wise. 2:12 The next, by name Maxmillian, was a man of the field. 2:13 Finally, Guilliumus became a scholar, and studied the land, and followed me devoutly in his appreciation for my creating of the lands, and I taught him what I knew. 2:14 Years passed, and the children of Hywel and Athilda grew, and set out from their parents homes to create their own lives. 2:15 And it came to pass, that the first man and woman grew older, until their days had each reached fifty-one years old, and they laid with each other once more, and had a daughter, Bella. 2:16 But Bella was a sickly child, and soon died, and Hywel cursed my name, saying "Why, Almighty, has thou done this to me? Why has thou struck dead my daughter?" 2:17 And I spaketh unto him, "I hath not killed your daughter. She has died of natural causes, for I had naught to do with her conception. Ye has passed child-bearing years, and Bella has perished from this. I am not responsible for each new birth; I only began the cycle." 2:18 "And so your days of fertility upon this earth shall be limited, and you must be fruitful only in your earlier years. Speak this truth unto your children, so that they do not make the same mistakes in conception." 2:19 But more time passed, and Hywel and Athilda died aged sixty-four and seventy, and their essence flowed back into the Void, becoming That Which No Longer Is. 2:20 And still the children of them had not yet multiplied. Beli was aged forty-nine, Asha forty-eight, Maxmillian forty-seven, and Guilliumus forty-five. 2:21 I spoke to the siblings four, and warned them that their days were coming to a close, and that it was time to reproduce and populate the earth. 2:22 And Guilliumus, now a wise man, stepped forward to me. "O Mighty Creator," he said, "We have none to reproduce with but our sister Asha, and I have observed the animals in this land, and seen that, if bred to much among the same bloodline, they become sickly. We must not have children among ourselves." 2:23 Seeing this predicament, I created a system for who could mate with whom, and who could not, and in this system, relationships among siblings were expressly forbidden, so, to set my law into order, I called That Which Was Once Athilda from the Void and remade her, and she looked like the Mother of the Living, but was not, and I called her Adlihta, for to honor one who looks like another in one's family you must name that one their look-alike's name in reverse. 2:24 I placed Adlihta upon the earth to become the wife of Guilliumus, for his faithful following of me. 2:25 And when Guilliumus was forty-six, he was given a daughter, called Marilyn. 2:26 Yet I saw that by the time Marilyn was old enough to be betrothed to her uncles, which I had sanctioned, they would be past their years, and so I also pulled Hywel's essence from the Void, and placed him upon the earth, and called him Lewyh. 2:27 And so Lewyh became the husband of Asha, and they had a son, who looked greatly like his field-working uncle, and was named Naillimxam. 2:28 And it came to pass seventeen years later that Beli died, along with Asha. 2:29 The next year Maxmillian perished in a terrible accident, and the year after Guilliumus died. 2:30 But I knew that Guilliumus had faithfully followed me, and could not bear to lose him, so I took his essence, and gave it form in the Void with me, to help govern the world, and I presented him with the holy title of Per. 2:31 And so I had created the rules by which the universe would be governed. 2:32 If ever you are in need of answers, read this text, for it shall give them to ye. Category:Church of Armentine the Great